Self-awareness. History of body perception (XVI-XX centuries)

In the book of Georges Vigarello, a famous French historian and sociologist, specialist in the sociology of medicine, the head of research in the Higher School of Social Sciences (France), an exciting immersion in the history of internal feelings is carried out until the XVIII century, when the understanding of the "I" was limited to thought and spirit : "I think, therefore, I exist."
In the Enlightenment in the texts of Didro and the Encyclopedia, the idea of ​​the sixth feeling appeared, which contains internal perceptions of the body. This awareness of something unknown is expressed in the new concept of a sense of existence. The body coincides with the "I" - this is a real revolution in the perception of itself, which will soon find an expression in numerous personal diaries. The XIX century deepened these thoughts, having engaged in sleep research, madness, the actions of medicinal and narcotic drugs, and somnambulism.
The beginning of the 20th century introduced more to today"s culture than one could expect: from the states of relaxation to the processes of awareness, from weakening to tension, to a state of oblivion.
All this becomes the subject of the study of the inner, deepest world.
The author convinces us that self -knowledge leading us to the discovery of the world gives us the joy of being ourselves